Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/prelims/mathematics-v/7/b/i/solution

By the assumed spherical symmetry of the electric potential, the electric field is radial: for . On a sphere of radius , Gauss's law therefore reads
Put . For , the enclosed electric charge is . In the spherical shell, the factor in the volume element cancels in the charge density, so
It follows that
At the origin the first formula gives without needing a radial unit vector. At both shell interfaces the adjacent formulas agree: for every fixed , there is no surface charge concentrated on either sphere, and the electric field is continuous there. No sign restriction on has been assumed, so the shell charge density and the radial electric field can be negative.

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